1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a pet robot charging system, a receiving apparatus, a robot, and a robot system, and more particularly, to a pet robot charging system, a receiving apparatus, a robot, and a robot system capable of handling image data representing images and outputting the image data.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various kinds of pet robots have been suggested (see for example JP-A No. 11-126017: Patent Document 1). These pet robots have a number of operation sections. Buttons at these operation sections correspond to different concepts such as “scold” and “praise” and the user presses each button to make the pet robot act in response to the concept of the pressed button. For example, when the concept of the pressed button is “bark,” the mouth of the pet robot is moved and a sound signal for the cry is output from a speaker. The pet robot of this kind can act like a living pet animal.
Pet robots having an image-capturing device for recognizing the user as its master or a ball etc. as a play tool have been suggested.
Such a pet robot includes an electrically-driven mechanism, and therefore charging its power source such as a battery is inevitable. Therefore, there are suggested techniques related to charging of pet robots (see for example JP-A No. 2001-121455: Patent Document 2).
According to the disclosure of Patent Document 2, whether or not to actually charge a mobile robot is determined by applying a charging rule to the recent charging log of the robot. A charging log includes recorded information on the number and frequency of charging, and the amount of supplied current. The charging rule defines whether or not to charge based on the content of the charging log. When the charging rule is appropriately produced, each action in the charging operation can be metaphorically phrased for example as “feeding” or “making it wait.” Alternatively, the charging operation can be used as some penalty like “one pass” or “ejection” in a game played cooperatively among one or more such mobile robots. More specifically, Patent Document 2 suggests that conditions for charging the mobile robot are determined based on related information and the charging rule.
Another known pet robot includes visual identification data provided in a predetermined position of a charging station, an image-capturing section provided in the mobile robot, an operation section to calculate the distance and the direction from the mobile robot to the charging station based on captured images, and a searching section to allow the mobile robot to seek out the charging station based on the result of calculation by the operation section (see for example JP-A NO. 2001-125641: Patent Document 3). In this way, the mobile robot traces the visual identification data with its camera to seek out the charging station, and the charging operation can be automatically carried out. More specifically, according to the disclosed technique, the mobile robot autonomously seeks out and moves to the charging station to carry out charging.
These pet robots as described above may each include an image-capturing section such as an image sensor, so that the image-capturing section can capture an image. However, in order to hold the image data obtained by the image-capturing section, the pet robot needs a very large memory.